A few months ago, I received an email from a nearly billion-dollar (USD) marketing company. The company espoused the following "keys to success" for email marketing in said email:
"Better email design = better results."
"What's one of the biggest reasons for under-performing emails? Underwhelming design. To deliver emails that perform as great as they look, follow these essential elements of email design ..."
The first item on their essential elements list, "LOGOS AND COLORS."
Aside from one or two points, that have zero to do with design, the marketing company's recommendations for "better results" were total B.S. If the primary focus of your marketing emails is "design," you're setting yourself up for failure.
Does the design of an email have an impact on your results, "yes, it does!" But the effect of the design is minuscule when compared to other factors driving results. And your results need to be measured in dollar signs, not marketing awards!
These result factors include: who is sending the email, the quality of the relationship with the email list, and the offer. Not even a witty subject line comes close to the previous factors just listed.
Last month, a client sent one email and sold over one hundred thousand USD of tickets to their event, in twenty-six minutes. Their email did not contain a single graphic. Other so-called marketers consider the email sent "ugly and unprofessional."
So my question to you (and you can only choose one of the following), "what would you rather have, a hundred thousand dollars of advance ticket sales or an email that's visually stunning?" Ironically enough, most event organizers choose the pretty email.
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